The Shortcomings of Fallout 76

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Fallout 76 is a strange addition to the post-apocalyptic series in that it’s multiplayer instead of singleplayer. The title launched on November 4 and has been raking in an abundance of negative reviews. It received 5/10 from IGN, 52 percent from Metacritic, and popular Youtube reviewer Angry Joe gave it a 3/10. “Fallout 76” has been doing poorly and here’s why.

“The game has too many bugs and glitches.”, said senior Enoch Hickenlooper. Bethesda, the company who developed and published “Fallout 76” is known for releasing games with a plethora of glitches, “Fallout 76” is no different. “Dropping an item could make it fall through the floor on uneven terrain” said senior Sean Laub, other examples include enemies and players alike healing suddenly after being damaged, player character models becoming deformed after entering “Power Armor” (it should be noted that this glitch was present in the previous title) and the list goes on.

“I didn’t like that the story was told through holotapes that you can’t pause. If you took them off or missed a word you had to restart the whole thing”. Said senior Enoch Hickenlooper. One of the main reasons why the Fallout series is popular is because of the interactions players can have in the world. Players could investigate a casino run by cannibals and either join or stop their plans to kidnap and eat a guest. They could stop an infiltrator from blowing up a monorail, failure results in it destroyed for the rest of the game. Players could even go so far as to nuke an entire city, which results in a non-player character (NPC) that survives the explosion, but her appearance is altered greatly with severe burns across her face. Players felt like their choices mattered, but in “Fallout 76” there are no choices because Bethesda decided to remove all human NPCs.

The story is now told through audio tapes scattered around the wasteland. Quests feel boring and repetitive without NPCs to liven up the world. The only other humans in the game are other players. While they can explore, quest, talk, and duel each other, however, this isn’t always the case. The game’s map is 4 times larger than the last entry in the series “Fallout 4”. Game servers only hold a maximum of 24 players per server. Finding other players is rare and finding someone willing to group up is even rarer. Friends are almost a necessity to enjoy this game, mostly because the game can be enjoyed solo, however, it requires a specific type of playstyle.

Exploration is another one of the major draws to the “Fallout” games. The map is 4 times as big as the last game. The map is full of unmarked locations that players can stumble upon, often having hidden paths that reward players with items and weapons. Every area has its own own story to piece together with audio tapes and computer logs, however, it still doesn’t feel like “Fallout”.While exploration is still the same Bethesda made changes to the combat, the perk system, and storytelling in order to provide a more multiplayer friendly experience.

Players can only hope that Bethesda doesn’t give up on the game, but instead works diligently to improve

the game. “For Honor”, “No Man’s Sky”, and “Tom “Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege” are all games that had a rocky start but were then brought back to life with constant updates. Bethesda can still fix this game like other developers were ab. Hopefully, Bethesda can learn from this failure so they can continue to release quality games